I am usually a huge fan of Ellen Hopkins novels in verse. I struggled a lot getting into this one and finally made the decision to put it down. From the start, I had a hard time reading the novel from the varying perspectives - I didn't like how it went back and forth between verse and then the POV of someone who kills with a gun. I am not a fan of the 2nd amendment and don't believe that we should all be allowed to carry guns. I know Hopkins is trying to get young adults to stop and think about gun violence but I feel like she missed the mark on this one. I am sure there will be readers that love this piece of work, I just am not one of them.

In this small town, there are many reasons to carry a gun, but not all of them are honest. These six stories all have hidden secrets and as the larger story slowly unravels the reader will discover many of their rationales for wanting a firearm. Gun violence is only one of the topics addressed in this novel; Hopkins also delves into the thinking behind white supremacy and undocumented immigrants. I will admit that these are three large issues and it is a lot to cover in one book, yet People Kill People does all three topics justice. Since this is a novel in verse, the 400+ pages fly by quickly and the reader will feel as if the story read itself. People Kill People is a good read, but not a fun and easy read.

Hopkins again does what she does best--blending her style of prose and verse to tackle tough topics in a harsh world. With the rise of both gun violence and racial tensions the author endeavors to explore the lives of several interconnected characters:

Rand & Cami - Still teenagers, but married with a young toddler. Rand works himself to death to provide for his family, but a dark secret from his past drives his need for revenge. Cami loves her family but feels as if she's been cheated out of her youth. She has some dangerous secrets of her own.

Grace - Rand's step sister, deftly opposed to guns since her father was murdered during a drive-by shooting.

Noelle - Grace's sometime best friend and Cami's sister, who sustained a brain injury and other prolonged effects from the same shooting that killed Grace's father.

Daniel - Half Honduran, Daniel is homeless following the death of his father and the deportation of his mother. He has been the victim of a racially motivated beating lead by Tim and Silas. Needing to feel wanted, Daniel is depressed and too emotionally attached to Grace.

Tim - Daniel's half brother and member of a white supremacist group. He hates his brother.

Silas - obsessed with Grace and disturbed by his mother's new Jewish boyfriend as well as Grace's half Honduran boyfriend, Daniel. He belongs to a white supremacist group

Ashlyn - one of the only female members of the white supremacist group. She's also from a violent background, currently living with an aunt because her father is in prison for murdering her mother.

Hopkins begins the novel with a horrific accident caused by gun violence and paranoia. It is this act and the subsequent sale of a gun to an unidentified character which drives the remaining narration. Each of the other characters has the means and motive for possessing this gun. As the story concludes, reader's learn just how violence, guns, and hatred impact these character's lives. However, the story's climax is shocking and oh so sad.

The pacing of the novel feels slow at times and the characters are not as magnetic per se as those from Identical, Tricks, or Impulse. However, this is a topic relevant to our society today and needs to be explores so that teen readers and older can have a meaningful discussion about choices and consequences.

Final rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Let me just start by saying that this should probably be marketed as a horror book because it left me shaking. Maybe because I have a baby and maybe because his name is Silas but JEEZ.

I don’t want to spoil anything because I received an ARC, but here’s a few things:

—We all know that Hopkins had a way with words but whoa. Each word seems perfectly chosen. There’s nothing flowery, nothing extraneous—just the perfect words to get the story across while also kind of punching you in the gut at the same time. Also, that last poem? Chilling, my reading friends. Made my skin crawl.

—As person who really doesn’t enjoy second-person perspective, this one didn’t bother me. Probably because each perspective was one so foreign to my own, so like, I had to step into the characters’ shoes to relate. It was unpleasant, but powerful. Also, Violence as the speaker of several poems? Terrifyingly genius.

—This book is relevant. Really, really relevant. It might take on a little *too* much, but the storytelling doesn’t feel forced or preachy.

Final verdict: I will not read it again because once was definitely enough. But I’m glad I read it.

This is an excellent story with multiple narrators. Each character has issues to resolve. Many of the characters feel that a gun will help them resolve those issues. It won't. Several characters deal with violence and its aftermath. Issues concerning immigration, racism, anti-Semitism, homelessness, mental health, and drug use affect them. It's a tangled web of problems. A page turner with memorable characters.

At the beginning of this I was a little weary of the format and structure but by the end I found this to be executed flawlessly. The short and brief prose was really an excellent way to approach this sensitive subject matter.

I have had a hit or miss relationship with Hopkins for years but People Kill People is an essential read.

I loved this book -so heartwrenching! However, it won't be right for my 12 and 13-year-old students. This book is much better suited to older students, and I will recommend it to some high schoolers I know.

Wow -this book blew me away. It had all the feels and I ugly-cried at the end! We meet six individuals who, we are told, may use guns in a violent way, or have a gun turned on them. This book explores the adage, "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." As we follow these characters, we see that they have motivations (some good, some bad) to act out violently. Some will, some won't. You will be shocked by the ending!

I do talk a bit more about this book in a video on my YouTube channel at the following address: https://youtu.be/2cuFw2WIhHw

People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins -Just finished this novel and I really don't want to speak.
A gun...it's a fairly easy thing to buy, hold, and shoot. In this novel written in verse, a gun can mean so many different things to so many different people: power, courage, protection, freedom, play, revenge. The list goes on. I think the scariest thing in this book is the raw hate some people can have for others.
This is an extremely thought-provoking read. An education you won't forget. #netgalley #ellenhopkins

About a year ago I read Ellen Hopkins’s The You I’ve Never Known. Like that work, People Kill People is written in a similar format. There are sections written in verse format, and others written in prose. Also, like that novel, this one confronts major, current social issues. People Kill People takes on the confrontational issues of gun laws, deportation, homelessness, mental health, and racism. With Hopkins’s inclusion of these current conflicts, it brings a realistic portrayal to the characters’ lives.

The book follows seven points of view. There is the main narration which derives from the perspective of an all knowing being. This narration is written in verse. This being has the ability to “slip into” the other six individuals. The six individuals: Rand, Cami, Silas, Ashlyn, Daniel, and Noelle each have their own sections in the story. Theirs is each written in prose. Each person has dealt with a difficult past, and all struggle with the present. Each character is somehow connected to the others. Every individual has a reason for their actions. The question is not who pulled the trigger. The question is: Is there ever a reason to?

I enjoyed the different perspectives and how they interconnected. I really liked that the epilogue gave a closure to each character’s life.

Again, Hopkins finds her finger firmly on the pulse of a major national issue and, in her own inimitable fashion, she addresses it constructively and thought-provokingly. Violence narrates this tale, introducing you to a cast of characters in second person--a young family, a victim of gun violence, a few white supremacists, a homeless boy, and a girl tied to all of them in various ways. As you slip in and out of bodies and minds, you see how violence shapes a person and what would drive a seemingly normal person to murder. But who pulls the trigger at the end is the ultimate mystery. Gun violence in this nation is a hot topic and one without clear solutions. As Hopkins points out at the end, violence will find a way, but guns just make it easier. I was raised by a family of gun nuts, and still to this day like to target shoot. That being said, if the option was give away my guns in exchange for no more deaths at the trigger, they'd be out of my hands and my house in a second. I would gladly give up a sport I enjoy for the safety of others, no question. Hopkins explores many paths, though she leaves solutions up in the air. Who truly knows the right answer? Maybe the solution to gun violence is exactly what Hopkins does in this book: addressing it plainly and openly and encouraging discourse. I'm interested to see the final formatting of this book, as the arc I received from Edelweiss had some issues.